Wrexham Lager
Wrexham Lager Brewery Co LtdWrexham Lager is a brewery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, that has produced alcoholic drink for more than 120 years. A new hi-tech brewery opened in 2011 in the heart of Wrexham, after the original closed in 2000. The original brewery was demolished between 2002 and 2003. Only the historic building in which brewing started still remains. Wrexham lager made a comeback on 29 October 2011 at the Buck House Hotel in Bangor-on-Dee, Wrexham. The Roberts family who restarted WXM Lager are using the same ingredients as those from which it was originally brewed.
The Wrexham Lager Beer Company Limited was founded in 1881 by German immigrants, Ivan Levinstein (Minshull-street, Manchester, chairman) and Otto Isler (Marsden-street, Manchester), trying to recreate their local lager. Wrexham itself had good water quality, and at one time had as many as nineteen different breweries operating, Wrexham Lager being the first Lager Brewery. The specific site was chosen as it was on a hill and the brewers could dig cellars into it for insulation from external heat, and the nearby River Gwenfro could be tapped for the required water. Brewing of the first lager began in 1882. However, the brewers could not easily keep the temperature down, affecting the quality of the lager and the company resolved as a result of their failure to carry on its business profitably and advantageously to go into voluntary liquidation on 31 July 1886, by which time Otho Horkheimer was chairman and the company offices were Stafford-chambers, 14 Brown-street, Manchester. (The London Gazette, 6 August 1886).
In May 1884 they had announced 'Issue of £25,000 in 2,500 shares of £10 each, bearing interest at the minimum accumulative rate of £6 per cent per annum ... Prospectuses and full particulars can be obtained at the OFFICES, 49, SPRING GARDENS, MANCHESTER. As BREWING and ICE MAKING have been commenced the Company are prepared to quote for both Beer and Ice'. In addition to Levinstein (chairman) and Isler the directors in 1884 were Otto Horkeimer, Esq., (Lower Mosley-street, Manchester), Noah Kolp, Esq., (George-street, Manchester), and E. J. Scott (Richmond Terrace, Blackburn). (The Manchester Guardian, 24 May 1884, front page, The Wrexham Advertiser, 16 May 1884, front page).
"A tour of the building is a very interesting as well as an instructive undertaking. The visitor who is taken to follow the natural course of the grain through its various processes, first visits four large malting rooms, each of which possess a flooring capacity for 600 to 800 measures of grain. The floor is of concrete, and everything necessary to the operation is supplied in what might be almost called lavish abundance. The grain which has been converted into malt is stored in malt silos, huge chambers specially prepared for its reception and where it waits until it is wanted. At proper time the malt is conveyed by mechanical means to the various floors where it is needed, no hand being necessary to touch a grain. After undergoing a number of processes, the brew-house is arrived at, and the mashing of the malt and the boiling of the wort is carried on under the eye of the experienced brewer, or as the Germans call him, the braumeister, Mr Philip Lorentz. During the time of the writer's visit the contents of the mash tun were being drawn off, and after careful examination, and much testing, discharged into the copper, where, by means of dry steam, the necessary heat is obtained for the further processes. The visitor is struck by the scrupulous cleanliness observed, as well as the copper fittings which are all carefully tinned to preserve the liquor from contamination. The writer paid a visit to the cooler, which is of large capacity, and possesses a fan in its centre which is revolved in order to procure a constant current of cold air." Wrexham Advertiser - Saturday 22 September 1888, page 8.
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